One day, Tom
and his kids are buzzed by an Air Force surveillance drone. He uses laptop
magic to take control and land the drone before going to teacher-parent
conferences at school.

At the
conference, it's recommended to him that Tom skip college and become a farmer.
Also, Murph brought a space travel history book to class that refutes the
newest versions that explain the moon landings of the '60s and '79s as fakes inspired
to lead the Soviet Union into bankruptcy. She got into a fight with classmates
over that.

Strange things
start happening around the farm (magnetic and GPS anomalies) ... poltergeists?
When a massive dust storm creates patterns on the floor, Coo interprets them as
binary codes – coordinates – and heads off with Murph to find out what's there.
It's a secret NASA installation, and Coop soon finds himself being interrogated
by a robot called TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin)

He also meets
Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), daughter of his college professor, Dr. John
Brand (Michael Caine), who's also there. Mankind, it seems, is destined to
leave Earth. An exploratory expedition of a dozen astronauts led by Dr. Hugh
Mann (Matt Damon) has already been sent to find a new home for humans.

Dr. Brand
recruits Coop to pilot the Endurance, the last ship available to enter a
wormhole that appeared near Saturn 45 years ago. Three potential new Earths at
the other end of the wormhole. If Coop can find a new home, Dr. Brand promises
to solve the remaining problems before he returns.

Nearly a
third-way into the film, after trying to deal with a devastated and angry
Murph, Coop finally takes off in a shuttle. On board with Coop are Amelia
Brand, Dr. Nikolai "Rom" Romilly (David Gyassi), and Dr. Doyle (Wes
Bentley), TARS and CASE (voiced by Josh Stewart). It takes two years to get to
Saturn, so everyone gets put into stasis.

Plan A: Find a
new world, come back, take people back there. Plan B: Find a new world, abandon
those left on Earth, repopulate with 5,000 frozen embryos they brought with
them.

Two years
later, wake up, wake up, and into the wormhole they go. They reach explorer
Miller's planet first, zip down to get her data quickly because every hour
there is seven years on Earth. It's a water planet with gigantic waves. They
lose Dr. Doyle and are stuck there until the engines drain, while time flies by
on Earth (23 years).

When he gets
back to Endurance, where two years
have passed, Coop gets 23 years of messages from his son, Tom (Casey Affleck)
and Murph (Jessica Chastain), who still holds a grudge, but who is now working
with Dr. Brand at the NASA facility. (This time passage thing is awfully
confusing.)

Two options
remain: Wolf Edmund's planet, or Mann's planet. Amelia has a conflict of
interest – she's in love with Edmunds. They head off to Mann's planet, where
they find and revive him. Mann gives them an encouraging report, but there is a
complication or two, one reported by Murph back on Earth.

But Mann had
lied to everybody, everything goes to hell ... so goodbye, Plan A? Things move
quickly as situations in space and on Earth have us squirming at the edge of
our seats.

Is there any
chance for the future of humanity? Maybe. Back on Earth, Murph has figured
something out with data TARS and Coop send after they're sucked into a black
hole.

Interesting
Trivia: One second on Miller's planet would equal one-and-a-half days Earth
time. Most of the TARS and CASE robot scenes were shot using puppets, the rest
in CGI. Matt Damon's participation, which was significant, was kept secret
until the film was released. Five hundred acres of corn were planted for a corn
field scene. The ears were sold for a profit. Because her astronaut suit was
kept open during an icy water shot, Anne Hathaway suffered from hypothermia.

Interstellar had a production budget of $165 million
and returned a box office of $672.8 million. At 169 minutes in length, that
works out to almost $1 million per minute ($976,000). It was nominated for five
Academy Awards, winning the Best Visual Effects Oscar.

Interstellar
is replete with parallels
and philosophical allegories just beneath its surface, so to speak, teaching us
much about ourselves and our capabilities ... more capabilities than we can
ever imagine. We're treated to good performances throughout, especially from
McKenzie Foy as young Murph. She is terrifically talented and believable. The
ending, with Ellen Burstyn as an elderly Murph, will bring a flood of tears to
your eyes.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Stanton “Stan”
Carlisle (Tyrone Power) enjoys his work as a barker at a traveling carnival; he
introduces mentalist Mademoiselle Zeena Krumbein (Joan Blondell), who reads the
minds of the crowd.

Zeena and her
alcoholic husband Pete (Ian Keith) used to be big time, according to young
electric girl Molly Carlisle (Coleen Gray), whose boyfriend, strongman Bruno
(Mike Mazurki), is jealous of Stan's attention to her. Molly tells Stan that
the Krumbeins developed a communication code.

In need of
money, Zeena wants to sell the code. Stan proposes that they leave the carny
and use the code to form an act. First, she consults the Tarot and is
distressed by the results. Then, Pete dies after drinking some wood alcohol
Zeena keeps in her trunk, fulfilling her Tarot reading.

Stan and Zeena
use the code to develop an audience-pleasing mind-reading act. When the side
show is raided by the local marshall (James Burke), Stan's smooth talking gets
them off the hook. Stan and Molly become an item, and eventually marry (albeit
by shotgun). They break from the carnival and head out on their own.

"The
Great Stanton." That's what he becomes, and headlines floor shows at the
ritziest hotel dinner rooms. Impressed by his performance, and especially his
answer to her trick question, Chicago consulting psychologist Lilith
Ritter (Helen Walker) asks him to her office.

Skeptic Ezra
Grindle (Taylor Holmes), adviser to an elderly rich matron whose dead daughter
Stan claims to see, is determined to expose Stan. But by now, Stan is in
cahoots with Lilith, who has been supplying him with confidential information
she recorded in her sessions with patients. He turns Ezra around, but needs
Molly's help to seal the deal by posing as his lost lover.

Oh boy.
Pushback's a butch. And trust? It takes one to know one. The Tarot never lies.

Nightmare
Alley is based on William
Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel. Although it is now considered a classic, the film
originally suffered from some of its so-called scandalous content and was not a
financial success. However, it is now considered Tyrone Power's best work.

Among the
objectionable scenes cut before the film’s release were bloodied geeks insanely
ripping apart chickens.

Nightmare
Alley has got some holes
and occasional improbable circumstances, I think, and it does leap ahead too
quickly at times. But all in all, the story is good, and Powers' acting is very
different from his usual swashbuckling roles. He does a marvelous
transformation at the end.

Grade: B

Quotations I Like from the Film

“We’ll keep
you in coffee and cake. Bottle every day, place to sleep it off … It’s only
temporary just until we can get a real geek.” – McGraw (Roy Roberts, uncredited)

“Is he the
missing link? Is he man or beast? Some have pronounced him man. But beneath
that shaggy mane of hair lies the brain of a beast.” – Hoatley (James
Flavin)“Since the
dawn of history, man has sought to see behind the veil which hides him from
tomorrow. And through the ages, certain men have looked into the polished
crystal, and seen.” – Pete Krumbein (Ian Keith)

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Commander
Michael Haydon (Kieron Moor) is piloting the first launch of an orbital vehicle
(Operation
Stardust) designed to prove man can escape the Earth's gravitational bonds
forever.

At a press briefing, World Press Service
correspondent Kim Hamilton (Lois Maxwell, “Miss Moneypenny” in the James Bond
films), is quite cynical about the usefulness of the project.

In her eagerness, inquisitiveness and
determination to get her story and prove all this is a waste of time and money,
Kim does something that would be quite impossible to do in today's
security-conscious world of space travel – she stows away on the Stardust.

There is a twist. Haydon and his chief
officer and navigator, Larry Noble (Jimmy Hanley), are advised by their boss, Prof.
Blandford (Walter Hudd), that an experimental tritonium (T-1) bomb will be
aboard as well. The atomic bomb will be test-exploded in space, because if
exploded on Earth, the damage would be appalling. Prof. Merrity (Donald
Wolffit) of the War Office will go along to trigger the bomb.

Pragmatic engineer Lefty Blake (Barry
Keegan) rounds out the crew.

Meanwhile ... Larry's wife, Barbara (Thea
Gregory), is tired of his putting work before her, and revels in the attentions
of an acquaintance. Telescreen and radio operator Jimmy Wheeler (Bryan Forbes)
almost misses a chance to propose to his girlfriend, Ellen (Shirley Lawrence).

Blast off! Once "up there," Kim
is discovered and kind of fits in, except for her holier-than-thou attitude (stereotypical
gender discrimination runs rampant). The bomb is released, but there's a
malfunction with its rockets and it attaches to Stardust's stern. Merrity loses it and becomes hysterical.

Can they detach the bomb before it goes
off? Or is there another solution?

The first British science
fiction film to be shot in Cinemascope and WarnerColor, Satellite in the Sky
was criticized for making space travel look too simple. Special effects
director Walter Joseph Veevers went on to work on 2001: A Space Odessey,
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,
and Superman: The Movie.

Watching Satellite
in the Sky, one has to reset memory and recall how things were in America
during the Cold War and the race for space of the '50s. Space travel in earnest
was more than a decade away, and the movie makers, as clever as they were, got
it all wrong. They used a launch ramp angling upward, they walked around
upright in the ship while in space, and they made coffee and sandwiches on board.
The exhaust smoke blew out of the rear, and then floated upwards.

Still, if one
can overlook all of that and concentrate on the story and moral message, the
movie can be enjoyable. This one, unfortunately, was average and flat.

Grade: C-

Quotations
I Like from the Film

“Some people find it
impossible to be quite so impersonal, Commander. If I may be personal, I’m glad
I’m not your wife..” – Kim Hamilton (Lois Maxwell)

"Is there any point in trying to
do something just because it's never been done before?" – Kim Hamilton
(Lois Maxwell)

"You
storybook heroines never do think of things like that. You only think of how
clever you'll be. And then impose on other people to save your silly necks."
– Cmdr. Michael Haydon (Kieron Moor)

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Arizona, 1882
– Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) is a sheep farmer who thinks the world is out
to get him. And it might be, because he's pretty much of a fast-talking wuss.
His girlfriend, Louise (Amanda Seyfried), is disillusioned. She breaks up
with him because people are living up to 35 now, so she doesn't have to rush
it.

Albert's best
friend, Edward (Giovanni Ribisi), is such a nice guy. He doesn't mind that his
girlfriend, Ruth (Sarah Silverman), is a prostitute. Although, he is sensitive
to her (ahem) penis breath when she has to (ahem) give a blowjob, and they've
never had sex together.

And then,
there's the infamous outlaw, Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), who always wears
black and speaks with an Irish accent. Sometimes, his wife, Anna (Charlize
Theron), just doesn't understand his ways. So she joins the church.

Things move
forward: Louise has a new boyfriend – hair care store owner Foy (Neil Patrick
Harris). Edward wants to start sleeping with Ruth, who doesn't want to because
they're Christians (what?). Albert saves Anna from harm in a saloon fight and
they become friends. Albert postpones moving to San Francisco to attend the
county fair with her.

When Anna
shows up Foy at the shooting gallery, it results in a gunfight challenge in a
week. Anna trains him until he's good. Well, not "good," but not as
bad. And it turns out that’s okay because. Foy has the hilarious runs on duel
day, and Albert doesn't care about Louise any more.

Clinch's right-hand
man, Lewis (Evan Jones) sees Albert and Anna kissing and tells Clinch. Another showdown
is in the works – Albert v Clinch. But first, a few things have to happen. And
happen, they do. Oh boy, they sure do, including a helpful Indian council
campfire headed by Cochise (Wes Studi).

Jamie Foxx
has a cameo role as Django Freeman, who shoots the owner of a racial shooting
game. Other cameos include Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown (Great Scott!), Ewan
McGregor as a laughing cowboy, Bill Maher as a dance emcee, and Gilbert
Gottfried as Abraham Lincoln.

"Clinch
Leatherwood" is obviously a nod to famous western star, Clint Eastwood. In
fact, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a kicked up, irreverent
version of Blazing Saddles. It's hilarious on so many levels. The saloon
brawl scene is hilarious. People die everywhere, even the fair, and somehow
it's not gruesome, it's funny. Louise gives Foy a mustache blow job, and THAT's
very funny.

Produced on a
$40-million budget, A Million Ways to Die in the West had a box office
of $86.4 million.

Grade: A

Quotations I
Like from the Film

"There
was a sheep in the whorehouse the last week ... Wandered in there, and then
when I went to pick it up, somehow it had made $20." – Albert Stark
(Seth MacFarlane)

"There
is something about connecting over mutual hatred that is just so much deeper
than mutual love." – Anna Leatherwood (Charlize Theron)

"There
is an ancient proverb among my people: 'Sometimes the only way for a man to
find true happiness is to take drugs in a group.'" – Cochise (Wes
Studi)

Friday, July 3, 2015

Twelve years
before Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird, (book in 1960, movie
in 1962), there was William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust (book in
1948, movie in 1949), one of the earliest books/movies to deal frankly with the
social aspects of racial injustice.

In 1940s
Yoknapatawpha County, rural Mississippi, black farmer Lucas Beauchamp (Juano
Hernández) is accused of a murder he says he didn't commit.

As he's being
led handcuffed into the jailhouse, past the glaring eyes of bigoted white men,
he calls out a young man in the crowd – Chick Mallison (Claude Jarman Jr.) –
and tells him to fetch his uncle, lawyer John Gavin Stevens (David Brian).

Chick had once
spent a lot of time trying to pay Lucas back for a kindness, but to no avail.
Uncle John assures him that Nub and Crawford Gowrie (Porter Hall and Charles
Kemper), father and brother of victim Vinson Gowrie (David Clarke), won't start
anything until Sunday's done.

Lucas sends
Chick on a research mission to find out what kind of bullet killed Vinson
Gowrie. When he gets no support or help from Uncle John, Chick takes matters
into his own hands. But he does get help from a feisty old spinster, Miss
Eunice Habersham (Elizabeth Patterson), and Lucas' son, Aleck (Elzie Emabuel).
They head to the cemetery, but the coffin ... is ... empty.

The
revelation gets Uncle John stirred up, and he calls on Sheriff Hampton (Will
Geer) to do something about it. To keep the expected lynch mob from getting to
Lucas, they need someone at the door – a white woman, say ... Miss Eunice. They
find Vinson's body, but is it too late to save Lucas?

Here's where
the truth comes out.

Intruder in
the Dust is based on
William Faulkner's 1948 novel. MGM Studios bought the film rights from Faulkner
for $50,000, and shot the film in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. His
novel contributed to his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

The film,
however, didn't even break even, with a box office about $150,000 below its
production budget of $988,000.

As good a
film as it is, Intruder in the Dust
can’t hold a candle to To Kill a
Mockingbird with its similar themes. And that’s about the size of it.

Grade: B

Quotations I
Like from the Film

"In
matters of life and death, a man's vocabulary is almighty small." –
John Gavin Stevens (David Brian)

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Henry “Hank”
Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a successful Chicago defense attorney. Very
successful. So why does he walk out of the courtroom at the start of a trial,
and his soon-to-be ex-wife? Because his mother just died, and Mr. Unpleasant
Chicago Attorney has got to get back to his hometown of Carlinville for the
funeral.

After reuniting with his brothers – younger, autistic Dale (Jeremy Strong) and older Glen
(Vincent D’Onofrio) – he also sits in at his recovering-alcoholic father Judge
Joseph Palmer's (Robert Duvall) court. Hank and the Judge are estranged and
haven't talked for a while ... at least not decently.

Hank bumps
into Samantha “Sam” Powell (Vera Farmiga), his old girlfriend who owns the
Flying Deer Diner. Later, out drinking with his brothers, he meets a cute
bartender, Carla (Leighton Meester), and ends up making out with her in a phone
booth, to his brothers' surprise.

The next day,
he sees the family SUV backed into a crumbled garage door, and then discovers a
broken headlight frame and deep scratches on the side of his father's 1971
Cadillac Coupe DeVille. The Judge refuses to believe it's his fault, words are
exchanged and a pissed Hank leaves ... only to return when the Judge is
suspected of a fatal hit and run. It's a Murder 2 arrest.

Despite all of
Hank's efforts to help, the Judge obstinately shoves him aside and hires his
own defense attorney – C.P. Kennedy (Dax Shepard), a nice guy, but not up to
Hank's standards (he throws up before the first court appearance). Judge Warren
(Ken Howard) presides; the prosecuting attorney is Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob
Thornton).

Two revelations:
Judge Palmer, it turns out, has colon cancer and is having chemotherapy, and
Carla is Sam's unplanned daughter. Oh, there's another. To Hank's surprise, daughter
Lauren (Emma Tremblay) and the Judge get along just fine.

It's times
like this that bring conflicted family closer together. And that's important,
because the trial is pretty rough.

Also
considered for the role of Judge Palmer were Jack Nicholson and Tommy Lee
Jones. Elizabeth Banks was Vera Farmiga’s competition for the role of Samantha
Powell.

Despite its high
audience approval ratings, The Judge only did okay at the box office,
bringing in $83.7 million against its estimated $50-million budget. Robert
Duvall was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (his seventh acting
nomination).

Robert
Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall are good, really good. But … everything is pretty
much predictable and not very surprising.

“You're a
shined up wooden nickel, Mr Palmer. A bully with a bag of tricks. But unlike
you, I have one simple belief. That the law is the only thing capable of making
people equal.” – Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton)

“Did you
know ninety percent of the country believes in ghosts? Less than a third in
evolution? Thirty-five percent can correctly identify Homer Simpson's fictional
town in which he resides, less than one percent knows the name ‘Thurgood
Marshall.’ But ... when you put twelve Americans together in a jury and you ask
for justice? Something just south of brilliance happens. Often as not, they get
it right.” – Henry “Hank” Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.)